


It's over before it started.

by j_obsessed



Category: Cricket RPF
Genre: Character Study, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Light Angst, M/M, Sad and Happy, Team Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 11:35:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28812792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/j_obsessed/pseuds/j_obsessed
Summary: Damn you Lucie. Damn you.
Relationships: Cameron Green/William "Will" Pucovski
Comments: 20
Kudos: 14





	It's over before it started.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rosetylars](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosetylars/gifts).



> So one day, I texted Lucie, and told her that "Cam and Puc are awfully close don't you think?"  
> Then she wrote like, 10 and a bit thousand words of... brilliance.   
> So hopefully this is somewhat in her league <3   
> Love you babes, hope I did our boys justice

The First Time.

Cam doesn’t know what’s possessed him to do what he just did. He really doesn’t. His first instinct is to turn and twist around, to check if someone has been watching him, or has seen what he’s just done. But. He can’t really move.

Because if he does move, then the 5’7 mess of his teammate will be jostled off Cam’s shoulder. And for some, extremely odd, very unknown reason, the thought of disturbing Will from his very comfortable sleep (we’ll get to that in a second) makes Cam very unhappy.

So he closes his eyes and gives himself a break. It’s fine.

-

They’re on the flight from Melbourne to Sydney, and they’ve got the row for themselves. Tim and Steve are somewhere together up in the front, and Hoff, Pat and Starc have taken up a spot at the back. Cam grins when he hears a particular complaint of “fuck _off_ Patrick, just because I married him in the playground does not change the legitimacy of MY WORDS DAMMNIT-”

He’ll ask Hoff later. He’s officially been welcomed into the cartel, so he’ll get the scoop at some point. But right now he’s too comfortable and too content, to give a damn. It’s a really short flight, and they may as well use the time wisely, whether that’s by sleeping, or arguing about the legitimacy of things, or mentally shadow batting.

Will has chosen the first option. But he’s not laying over the seats like he could do, since the plane is literally empty. He’s also not leaning onto the window as most people do when they’re sitting in the window seat.

What he has decided to do is use Cam’s shoulder as a pillow. And has been doing so since they crossed 13000 feet.

It concerned the taller blonde at first. However, now thirty-two minutes in, Cam’s decided that maybe, this is sort of really nice.

Naturally, they’re friends. It was inevitable. The similar age group, and having been hanging around the test squad as prodigies for ages. It was only a matter of time. 

But for the very first time, Cam thinks, that maybe this is not something that friends would do.

He looks so comfortable. And there’s a weird feeling in his chest that says, maybe, Will should be sleeping on his shoulder a lot more than he currently does. And also, maybe, it would be really lovely if they napped together on his couch at home in Perth.

_Whoa._

Cam blinks rapidly, fidgeting with his hands. As if picking up something was wrong in his subconscious state, Will’s hand which was originally hidden under the blanket shifts just a fraction and rests beside his, fingertips only just touching.

He’s never really understood the fascination with rings, but they look _good_ on Will’s hands. He wears quite a few, but they suit him. Cam almost wants to throw himself out of the plane for thinking the next thought that he has.

_No chance in hell am I going to start thinking about rings. He is a friend. A **friend**. I do not want to ‘ruin our friendship’ nor do I want to ‘fuck up the friendship.’ Sort of. Fuck. _

The plane hits a little rough patch, probably Sydney weather acting up, and Cam sets his head back against the seat and takes a breath. Without really thinking about it, he turns his face just to the left and presses the smallest of pecks to the top of Will’s head.

The Last Time.

The moment he sees Will dive like that, body jamming into the turf, Cam just wants everything to stop. He just wanted to stop playing. Get off the field, accompany Puc to the doctors for his scans, and just make sure that he’s okay. Maybe then he could think about bowling again, or batting, or whatever, cricket, right, that’s the one.

It’s never good, seeing a teammate hurt themselves in a match. But it’s worse when it’s their debut match. And it’s even _more_ worse when it’s due to fielding.

Due to fucking _diving_ in the field for a ball, that had come off a shot that wasn’t even that great. Literally, it was only going to go for one run, to an area that already had protection in the outfield.

Cam has seen injuries for several better reasons than this. Half of him wants to grab Puc by the biceps (shut up Painey) and shake him and ask him “why, why would you do that and leave me alone on the field without you,” and part of him wants to run and tell him “I don’t know how many more injuries of yours my heart can take because I adore you and seeing you get hurt, hurts me.”

But he isn’t really in a position to do either of those things a) because he doesn’t want to hurt Puc’s shoulder and b) because he has an actual test match to play.

That doesn’t stop him from wanting, though.

 _Wanting,_ a lot of things.

(There’s a third reason, which is the fact that Cam will under No Circumstances Ever utter the words “I adore you” to Puc. He’s seen this happen before. And it doesn’t usually end pretty. Because they’re not like Starcy and Hoff, who got married when they were eight. And they’re not Pat and Mitch, who seem to just, be in love because the universe said so. And they’re not even like Tim and Steve, who somehow live in each other’s heads all the time, knowing what the other needs without words.)

He has a lot of time to think about this, and to think about why doing anything _about this,_ whatever this really even is, because they’re stuck in the field, all day. Hoff can’t pull any magic deliveries. And Painey can’t seem to hold the blinders he usually does. Everyone’s flat, dead on their feet. Everyone deals with a loss (or a draw) differently.

Tim crumbles into an armchair, but before even ten seconds goes by, Steve pulls him up. He takes Tim’s phone out of the keeper’s hand, and his own out of his pocket, dropping them onto a nearby table. He swaps out their team hoodies for basic Kmart ones, and hands his husband a face mask, before tugging him out by the hand to be anonymous in the city.

Hoff collapses into a sofa, sighing audibly. Cam thinks that maybe he should go congratulate him, and tell him how wonderful he was, but it feels wrong. Starcy beats him there anyway, albeit in an unconventional manner. He leans over the back of the couch, mercilessly poking at his boyfriend’s cheek until he gets a “the fuck do you want Mitch?” which gets a prompt response of;

“To tell you how incredible you were today, sweetheart,” followed by a soft caress of the younger fast bowler’s jaw. Hoff peeks an eye open and shuffles over with an unsuppressed smile. Mitch looks at him with a knowing smirk. "Knew I'd get ya."

“Shut up. Come here.”

Mitch somehow manages to origami himself around Josh, but not before handing Pat (who’s sitting in the armchair beside them) his phone, so that their cartel member can call his husband. If Pat talks to Mitch quietly until Starc and Hoff both fall asleep, well, that’s nobody’s business.

Just as Cam is about to go see if he can find the physio and get an update on Will, Pat tucks the phone to his chest and peeps around the chair at him. “Will is back, by the way. He’s asleep in the physio roo-”

Cam’s gone before Pat can even finish his sentence.

Yes, Cam wanted to win, he really wanted to win. And the loss (draw…) stings like hell. But that’s not what’s at the forefront of his mind right now. All he’s really thinking about is the fact that Will has injured himself, and he wasn't there to help. 

He slips into the physio room as quietly as possible, and finds a blanket that looks a lot like Will, curled onto one of the mattresses. Just from the very top of the cloth, he can see Will’s shoulder brace, strapped and held tight.

He winces involuntarily, but can’t help himself from running slim fingers over the smooth bandaging. Both in hopes that it will make everything hurt less, and because the bare skin of Will’s shoulder looks alluring, and Cam doesn’t know if he’ll get to do this again. Will stirs, only very gently, and Cam retracts his fingers like he’s been burned.

Without making a single sound, he braces himself over his teammate, and presses a feather-light kiss to the crown of his head, scrunching his nose at the feel of stray hairs brushing the tip.

And then he leaves.


End file.
